Link to h igh resolution image in MrSID format at New York Public Library
BIBLIOGRAPHIC INFORMATION
Creator:
Blaeu, Willem Janszoon
Title:
Nova Belgica et Anglia Nova.
Publication information:
Amsterdam: Blaeu,
1635
Description:
Copperplate engraving, hand colored, 39 x 50
cm.
Subjects:
New York (State)--Maps--Early works to
1800
New England--Maps--Early works to 1800
Notes:
1. From his Teatrum Orbis Terrarum.
2.
Image derived from a Kodak Photo CD using slide of original map at John
Carter Brown Library. Contact John Carter Brown Library for
reproduction rights.
Nova Belgica et Anglia Nova, 1635
After Henry Hudson’s rediscovery in 1609 of the river that now
bears his name, rapid progress was made in the mapping of New York. Most
of the maps of southern New York that appeared in the first three-quarters
of the seventeenth century were the work of Dutch explorers and
cartographers.
Hudson and his successors quickly determined the
configuration of the Hudson River up to the limits of its navigability. In
1613/14, Adriaen Block, a Dutch explorer and fur trader, sailed around
Long Island, and sketched out its overall appearance.
The 1635
Blaeu map of New Netherland and New England reflects these early Dutch
explorations. It is largely based on a manuscript map, the famous "Adriaen
Block Chart"; of 1614. Long Island (called Matowacs on this
map), is shown as broken up by waterways--a feature taken from the Block
Chart. Lake Champlain is still displaced far to the east--a feature
which Block copied from an unpublished map by Champlain. A number of
important place names make their first cartographic appearance on this
map. These include "Manhates" (Manhattan), "Hellegat" (Hell Gate), and
"Adrian Blocks eylandt" (Block Island). The beginnings of Dutch settlement
in this area are reflected in the place names "New Amsterdam" and "Fort
Orange" (near Albany). The numerous Dutch place names along the
coast of New England are mostly copied from the Block chart, although
Plymouth is added.
This and other early Dutch maps are important
sources of information about local Indians. A number of tribes are named,
including the Mohawks ("Maques") and Mohegans ("Mahikans"). Birch bark and
dugout canoes are shown, as well as somewhat fancifully drawn Indian
settlements. American wildlife, including turkey and beaver, are also
illustrated. These illustrations, which were frequently copied on later
maps, were important sources of information about life in the New World
for Europeans who remained at home.
REFERENCES:
Burden,
Mapping of North America , no. 241.
Benjamin Schmidt,
"Mapping an Empire: Cartographic and Colonial Rivalry in
Seventeenth-Century Dutch and English North America," The William and
Mary Quarterly , 3rd Series, Vol. LIV, No. 3 (July, 1997),
549-578.
Trudel, An Atlas of New France , 86-87.
Revised 7/19/04